In 1890, Pete Weast bought a risque painting that became a Peoria treasure, but not for the reasons he’d envisioned.

The tavern-keeper apparently knew booze better than art. He shelled out a princely $4,000 for what turned out to be a knock-off of the original “Nymphs and Satyr.” (The original, by the acclaimed French painter Adolphe William Bouguereau, now hangs in the renowned Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass.)

The clueless Weast proudly put the forgery inside his Golden Palace Saloon on Jefferson Street. The 8-by-10-foot forgery depicts three grinning wood nymphs dragging a leering satyr. In 1901, anti-alcohol crusader Carrie Nation stormed to Peoria, threatening to take her axe to the painting and the rest of the place. But Weast slipped Nation a $50 bribe to get her to leave town.

Weast retired in 1908 and put the painting in storage. The work went ignored until 1970, when it was found just before the old tavern was razed. In 1972, the painting was displayed at the Creve Coeur Club, where it remained until the club was remodeled in the late 1980s. It now is on exhibit at Richard’s On Main, 311 Main St. The nymphs and satyr are still grinning, survivors — though fakeries — in Peoria after all these years.